1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a container for a pasty or liquid cosmetic product, comprising a retractable application member, provided with an applicator which, outside of periods when the product is being applied, is engaged in a tubular reservoir containing the product to be applied. It applies particularly well to containers for mascara or gloss, that is to say fluid products, that is to say products that are liquid or viscous.
2. Background Information
Conventionally, containers for liquid or viscous products have an application member. The application member in practice comprises a cap that the user grasps with the fingers of one hand to apply the product to her eyelashes or lips for example. The fact that the product is fluid means that efficient sealing must be provided outside of periods when the product is applied, when the cap is engaged on the neck of the container; in practice this sealing is obtained by a closure by screwing or by clip action of the cap onto the neck of the container. It follows that the cap is a member that forms a substantial part of the outside surface of a mascara or gloss container in a closed configuration, and that combined movements or significant forces may be necessary to open the container before an action to apply product.
A variant has been described in document EP-1 721 543 which, among various containers for cosmetic product, describes a container for mascara (or even for gloss) comprising:                a body that is elongate in a longitudinal direction and provided with a bottom and a free edge;        a reservoir contained in that body and movable in translation between a low stable position and a high stable position, the reservoir comprising a neck;        an elastically compressible device with two stable withdrawal positions that is disposed between the body and the reservoir and of which the two stable axial withdrawal positions define the two stable positions, low and high, of the reservoir;        an application member comprising a shaft terminated by an applicator adapted to be loaded with mascara, this application member having a resting configuration in which a part of the shaft and the applicator are contained in the reservoir so as to enable the applicator to be loaded with mascara, and being able to leave that resting configuration until it is completely out of the reservoir and of the container;        a cap joined to the shaft of the application member and adapted to engage within the body, the stable axial withdrawal configurations of the elastically compressible device being such that when the application member is in its resting configuration in the reservoir, the cap is either retracted into the body flush with the free edge of the body, or it projects at least partially from the body;        a wiper provided at the exit of the reservoir so as to be traversed by the applicator when it enters the reservoir or when it is extracted out of it; and        complementary sealing members respectively carried by the shaft and the neck of the reservoir constituted by a protuberance carried by the shaft and anchoring claws provided on the neck of the reservoir; in the high position of the reservoir, the claws spread outside the inside volume of the body in which the reservoir slides, whereas in the low position, the claws are maintained in a brought-together configuration by the inside wall of that body so as to remain engaged on the protuberance.        
Such a configuration is simple and reliable in use without significant risk of inadvertent opening (the movable part fully retracts telescopically in a resting configuration), while making it possible to have very sleek aesthetics, and without leading to prohibitive voluminosity.
It should be noted that, in such a container, the reservoir is movable between two main positions that are essentially defined by the elastically compressible device, the complementary sealing members remaining engaged on each other so long as the reservoir has not reached its high position and having to come axially out of the body to be able to separate. This means that the travel of the elastically compressible device must be at least equal to the axial dimension of the cap.
Thus, not only is the use of such a container simple and reliable, but such a container furthermore has good sealing characteristics, without however requiring complex movements by the user, but at the cost of a certain complexity of structure and dimensional constraints.
Document FR-2 936 939 (or EP-2 346 370) then provided a container for a liquid or pasty cosmetic product having better sealing without all the same dimensional constraints.
This container has various differences relative to the teachings of document EP-1 721 543.
In particular, as regards the sealing members, the shaft comprises a protuberance comprising, towards the applicator, a sealing portion and, towards the cap, a transverse contact surface, and the reservoir comprises, before reaching its neck, a constriction adapted to receive the sealing portion in axial abutment and, beyond its neck, a collar formed, along its circumference, by a plurality of rigid sectors and elastic sectors, that collar having a relaxed configuration in which it is of larger transverse size than the inside cross section of the body and a restricted configuration in which it is confined inside the body, the rigid sectors comprising, along the inside edge of the collar, rims adapted to come into axial abutment against the transverse contact surface of the protuberance so as to maintain the sealing portion against the constriction when the application member is in its resting configuration. In a particular embodiment, at least the rigid sectors of the collar further comprise outside rims bearing against the inside wall of the body for maintaining the collar in its restricted configuration inside the body. Advantageously, the collar is linked by a skirt also formed by rigid or flexible portions, capping the constriction of the reservoir. In a particular embodiment, the constriction forms part of an added-on part of the reservoir which, towards the inside of the reservoir, comprises a wiper lip.
Furthermore, this document provides that, as soon as the elastically compressible device brings the cap into a configuration in which it gives a sufficient hold for the fingers of a user to be able to pull on it, it is no longer required for that elastically compressible device to be capable of causing the reservoir to rise to attain its high working position, a pulling force on the cap making it possible to complete the rising movement of the reservoir to attain that high position, in which the reservoir can then be held by the presence of a point of increased resistance braking descent from that high position.
It can be understood that the aforementioned cooperation between the protuberance of the shaft and sealing members provided by the neck of the reservoir have, in relation to the teachings of document EP-1 721 543, the advantage of no longer employing claws that are radially movable in relation to the axis of the shaft while being separated by slots liable to become clogged with the product brought by the applicator, which may adversely affect the cleanliness of the neck of the reservoir and the durability of the applicator. As a matter of fact, this document provides to dispose, between the rigid sectors of the collar, elastic sectors that ensure circumferential continuity for the collar.
However, the collar, like the claws of the prior art, can only spread radially and release the protuberance when the reservoir has been sufficiently raised in the body for that collar (or those claws) to be outside the body. In other words, the release of the protuberance is determined by passing the edge of the body into which the application member retracts. Furthermore, the sealing results from the existence of an axial component resulting from the effect of the collar on the protuberance, which amounts to saying that the function of axial linking between the application member and the reservoir and the sealing function are coupled.